Hoora

Publish a Mobile Game Without the App Store or Google Play

You have a game and you're about to take on the App Store and Google Play: developer account, yearly fees, review, possible rejections, updates stuck in a queue. Plenty of creators give up before their first submission. There is another route, one where you publish a game playable on mobile with none of that.

Publishing a mobile game on the stores: the real cost

The stores cost money and time. On Apple's side, a developer account at $99 a year. On Google's side, $25 once, plus a testing rule that requires new accounts to gather at least 12 testers for 14 days before going to production. Add a review that can take days and end in a rejection, updates that go back through the same queue, and 15 to 30% commission the moment you sell anything.

For a studio launching a premium title, those constraints make sense. For someone who created a game with AI on a Sunday night and just wants people to play it, it's a mountain out of proportion.

The alternative: a game that runs in the browser

An HTML5 game runs straight in the phone's browser. No download, no install, no store to clear. You tap a link, you play. This approach ticks exactly the boxes that block you on the stores:

  • No developer account. No entry fee, no yearly subscription.
  • No review. No queue, no risk of rejection.
  • Instant updates. You replace the file, everyone gets the new version.
  • Works everywhere. iPhone, Android, desktop, anywhere there's a browser.

One technical condition: your game has to fit in a single self-contained HTML file, holding the HTML, the CSS and the JavaScript, with no external resources. That's exactly what an AI produces when you ask it for a web game. For the full method, see our guide on creating a game with ai.

Publishing a mobile game on Hoora

Go to the Hoora website and click the purple "Import" button in the left menu.

The Import button in the Hoora website side menu

The whole thing takes seconds:

  1. Drop your HTML file in, a playable preview appears right away.
  2. Add a title and a description.
  3. Publish.

It's free, and the only limit is a 100 KB maximum file size. Your game becomes instantly playable by the community, on mobile and on desktop, with nobody having to install anything.

A game published on Hoora with its community stats

Here's the clever part: Hoora itself is on the App Store and Google Play. Your players get a real mobile app experience, full screen and smooth, without you publishing an app of your own. You get the upside of mobile without paying its price. For the full import walkthrough, see our guide on publishing your ai creations.

Should you drop the stores for good?

No, not in every case. If you're aiming at a paid premium game with in app purchases and an established brand, the App Store and Google Play still make sense. But if your goal is to get your game played by as many people as possible, fast and for free, the web takes you there far more directly.

Before publishing, try your game on your own phone, see our guide on testing an html5 game on mobile.

Frequently asked questions about publishing a mobile game without a store

  • Can you really publish a mobile game with no developer account? Yes, if your game is HTML5. It runs in the browser, so it never gets submitted to a store and needs no paid developer account.
  • Will my game work on iPhone and Android? Yes. A web game runs on any device with a browser, with no separate version to maintain for each system.
  • Is it really free? Publishing on Hoora is free. You save Apple's $99 a year, Google's fees and the commission on sales.
  • How do I update my game? You import a newer version of the file. The update is immediate, with no review to go through again.
  • What format does my game need? A single self-contained HTML file holding all the code, with no external resources, under 100 KB. That's the format AI models naturally produce.
  • Where do I host the game if I skip the stores? Importing to Hoora covers the hosting. For other options, see our guide on hosting an html5 game for free.

The stores are not the only road to mobile, and rarely the fastest one. Grab your HTML file, import it, and your game is running tonight on anyone's phone.